India has a rich natural history record from
the Himalaya spanning over a century. In this paper we provide an overview of existing
knowledge on snow leopard, especially from the more recent studies. A knowledge
gap analysis revealed barely 3% of its range is relatively well studied,
although snow leopards occur pervasively across ca. 100,000 km2 in the Indian Himalaya. Only 37% of its
range appears to be ‘good’ habitat. Based on recent density estimates and their
extrapolation over the range, India is likely to support about 500 snow
leopards. Threats vary regionally, but livestock grazing by migratory herders and
recent developmental pressures appear to be the most serious conservation
issues threatening snow leopard and other wildlife in the snow leopard range.
Given the pervasive snow leopard occurrence and human pressures, the general consensus
and national strategy is to formulate and implement knowledge based,
participatory programmes over large landscapes.

Evidence suggests that religion is an important driver of peoples’
attitudes toward nature, but the link between religion and carnivore
conservation is poorly understood. We examined peoples’ attitudes
in Buddhist (n = 83) and Muslim communities (n = 111) toward snow
leopards (Panthera uncia) and wolves (Canis lupus) in Ladakh, India.
We found that the effect of religion on attitudes was statistically
nonsignificant, and was tempered by gender, education, and aware-
ness of wildlife laws. Even though religion by itself was not an
indication of an individual’s attitude toward large carnivores, the
extent to which he/she practiced it (i.e., religiosity) had a positive
correlation with pro-carnivore attitudes in the case of Buddhist but
not Muslim communities. Our findings indicate that it may be useful
to integrate locally relevant religious philosophies into conservation
practice. However, the emphasis of conservation messaging should
vary, stressing environmental stewardship in the case of Islam, and
human–wildlife interdependence in the case of Buddhism.

Journal Article

2016

"Choice" and destiny: The substrate
composition and mechanical stability of settlement structures can mediate coral
recruit fate in post-bleached reefs

For traditional island communities in the Nicobar archipelago, complete no-go areas are the most effective form of marine managementFor traditional island communities, no-go areas are the most effective form of management

For traditional island communities in the Nicobar archipelago, complete no-go areas are the most effective form of marine management

The ability of local communities to sustainably manage natural resource harvests in coral reefs ecosystem
depends heavily on the strength of traditional institutions. Coastal communities have evolved a suite of
restrictive practices to control marine offtake and there is considerable recent evidence of their effec-
tiveness in protecting and enhancing resource stocks. However, traditionally imposed restrictions can
vary considerably in their complexity and in their functional effectiveness. The indigenous communities
of the Nicobar Islands are dependent on marine resources for sustenance, managing them with a range of
traditionally imposed restrictions. These include limited entry to certain locations, closed seasons and
areas, and restrictions on species, size-classes of fish and fishing methods. We tested the relative
effectiveness of protection in areas managed under different traditional control regimes by comparing
the abundance and biomass of targeted fish groups in managed and unmanaged areas. Our results
indicate that reef sites with the strictest form of restriction e essentially no-go areas e had significantly
higher abundance and biomass values of most functional groups of fishes compared with partially
protected and control locations. In contrast, targeted food fish stocks did not differ from control locations
in partially protected sites managed with even complex forms of traditional management. Ensuring that
traditional harvest rules are complied is critical to the success of any management system, and our re-
sults suggest that they can be most strictly enforced in traditional no-go areas. Our work highlights the
importance of critically evaluating the factors influencing traditional management systems to strengthen
their ability to protect these reefs from unsustainable overharvest.